It is known that osteogenin and other bone morphogenic proteins when implanted into the soft tissue of an animal, such as a rabbit, a rat or a dog, induce the formation of new bone. Such compounds are considered osteoinductive. It also is known that ceramics, especially calcium hydroxyapatite and other calcium phosphates and mixtures thereof, are osteoconductive (i.e., when placed next to viable bone they provide a framework for the rapid incorporation of connective tissue and subsequent bone ingrowth).
The ceramics are inorganic and do not normally cause an immunological reaction. However, the bone morphogenic proteins may cause an undesirable immunological response.
It obviously would be desirable to have a method of inducing bone growth in animals, including humans, without using bone morphogenic proteins that might cause an undesirable immunologic response in the animals.